Government minister at the Gatchinsky DSK

The visit began in the early morning, when V. Yakovlev met the regional governor, Valery Serdyukov, and signed Russia’s first agreement for implementing the national project: Affordable and Comfortable Housing for the Citizens of Russia. This document provides for an input of 638,800 square metres of housing in the Leningrad Region in 2006 and 707,900 square metres in 2007.

After the meeting, the minister and the members of the Regional Government left for a working visit round the region so as to see how the local authorities were preparing to implement the national project. The first stop on their visit was Gatchina.

Vladimir Yakovlev went to the site, where reconstruction work is going on at the town’s main sewer. Here he met with the head of the local administration of the town of Gatchina, Alexander Kalugin, who explained in detail the reasons for the reconstruction work on the main sewer, which was built 120 years ago in tsarist times and is now in a dangerous condition. Furthermore, the sewer lies at a considerable depth, passing under the industrial enterprises of Gatchina and the historical part of the city. The administration head recalled that the estimated cost of reconstruction work on the sewer amounted to 500 million roubles, and that the whole project had been divided into three stages. So in order to complete the first stage this year, a great deal of money was required.

Then Vladimir Yakovlev together with accompanying members of the Leningrad Regional Government went to see the work of boiler № 10 and the steam-turbine generator, a modern facility that makes it possible for the boiler to convert to using its own electrical energy. This is an example of the way in which large residential areas are transferred from big, unprofitable boilers to mini-thermal electric power stations, thereby making it possible to avoid losses in the networks and making the work of the stations more beneficial to the state and to the public.

But the main aim of the regional development minister’s visit was to acquaint himself with the way in which the national Affordable Housing project might be implemented in the localities. For this reason, the next place Vladimir Yakovlev went to see was the ZAO Gatchinsky DSK. Together with Vladimir Nikitin, the manager of the Combine, he went round all the main production units. According to the minister, the houses built by the Gatchinsky DSK were of great interest both from the point of view of their layout and their cost. So he was very interested in whether the combine was ready to participate in the national Affordable Housing project. Receiving an answer in the affirmative, the minister continued his visit round the Leningrad Region, the main aim of which was to learn how preparations were being made for implementing the national project.